Memex Search

While researching the history of the Memex, some recurring themes arose. At the time, the Memex was a hypothetical machine that would allow essentially work as a form of hypertext, allowing the user to search through materials and create connections between materials, in this case a form of digital books. Bush’s concept what the Memex could achieve relates to the concept of hypertext. However, hypertext is not the main focus of the Memex, rather Bush was focused more so on allowing the user to connect between documents faster, and make information more accessible.

When I searched Memex on Google I surprisingly received a variety of links. Obviously Wikipedia was the first site that Google offered, there were some concept images for the Memex’s design, and even a YouTube video of the Memex animation. While digging through the labyrinth of Google, I discovered an “ancient” webpage about the Memex, which pretty much gave a summary of the concept of the Memex (link). Also, there was a site that linked to a Microsoft Research page titled “Memex –Digital Memories” in which Microsoft has an “initiative focused on research around storing all of an individual’s lifetime information, novel capture methods…, linking of information, and use of meta-data”. Microsoft Research also gives Memex awards, which are focused to aid in “further research and teaching the fundamental aspects of Digital Memories (Memex) research…”. On a side note, when I looked under Google’s blog option, almost all of the search results listed are related to the LIS 201 blog, or the discussion blogs.

                                                                                                                  

In today’s world, the physical form of the Memex would have looked like has shifted, the concept of connecting documents still exists in the form of hypertext. Hypertext is what essentially created the internet, which allowed for greater sharing of information and a pooling of resources, which was the main goal of the Memex. Now a days, the Memex’s desk like contraption has been replaced with laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. Almost anything that can have access to the internet allows the user to gather information through the use of a machine.